Friday, October 19, 2012

Zee News - Media Mafia Sinks To A New Low

Blackmail, extortion is not new to the news media. This is one of the
reasons I call the media “India’sBiggest Mafia”. Here’s a report from Sucheta Dalal (from 2003) that I quoted in a previous post:

“Last week, the Mumbai police arrested Rishi Chopra
of The Economic Times along with an accomplice (a former journalist with
another business daily) in an alleged extortion attempt. The duo was trapped
accepting a Rs 700,000 bribe which was the second installment of a Rs 2.5
million payoff to kill a report about the shenanigans of one Poonamchand Malu
of Malu Financial Services. Worse, the pay-off itself had apparently been
haggled down from an initial demand of Rs 10 million to Rs 2.5 million.
Although corruption in the media is no longer news, the actual arrest of two
scribes and the sums involved, marked a new low in this once honourable
profession”.

We now have a new case where Congress MP Naveen Jindal’s company Jindal
Steel & Power Ltd. (JSPL), in a reverse sting, has filed an FIR against
officials of the Zee News group for
blackmailing them to the tune of 100 crores for suppressing news related to
their involvement in Coalgate. The
FIR includes tapes of recorded conversations between JSPL officials and Zee
representatives in at least three meetings. Currently, the blackmail is stated
to be in the form of advertisements demanded by Zee. The tapes have been sent
for forensic examination according to the latest reports (The Hindu – October 15).

This is what The Hindu states: According to the
FIR, the meetings between JSPL officials and Zee representatives took place on
September 13, 17 and 19 at a South Delhi hotel. On the first day, the FIR
states, three JSPL officials met one of the journalists during which Rs. 20
crore was demanded in the shape of advertisements and in the second meeting the
demand was scaled up.

None of this is surprising. I have been a witness to rival groups of
publications blackmailing companies and seeking advertisements for many years.
One can also safely assume that is a common practice in media. Some media
outlets may be brazen and some maybe subtle but gentle arm twisting is a
standard wide-spread practice. In this case, the sum being demanded or
negotiated was huge (100 crores) and therefore it could seriously hurt a
company already ravaged by accusations. The
second aspect is that Coalgate is not a local or state issue. It’s a
national issue. What I mean is that if there is a similar issue restricted only
to Hoshiarpur or Coimbatore for instance, some
local/state level newspaper can get away with blackmail for a smaller sum like
10-25 lakhs or thereabouts. In the case of Coalgate, even if JSPL had succumbed
to Zee there is no guarantee some other news channel, a future JPC or SIT can suppress
any real offences. So for both reasons the option with JSPL was not to succumb
to the alleged blackmailing.

Here’s news that’s different from the past though. The Broadcast
Editors’ Association (BEA) has quickly conducted an inquiry by 3-man bench. Livemint reports: “According to BEA’s press release, a committee comprising
senior broadcast journalists N. K. Singh,
Dibang and Rahul Kanwal arrived at the unanimous conclusion “that Mr. Sudhir Chaudhary is found to have
acted in a manner that is unbecoming of an editor and in a fashion that is
prejudicial to the interest and objects of the BEA”. Predictably, Zee
News has stood by its employees and its editor. A legal process will have
greater bearing on the end outcome as against the BEA decision. Of course, the BEA decision is absolutely right.

Now, I have some problems with that committee of BEA that conducted the
inquiry. But before that here are some rants by a tainted journalist. Haha! Who
else could it be? Her tweets are reactions that truly reflect the “Albatross” around her neck that I referred
to in the post “Bark in the USA”.
Barkha tweets about the Zee incident as if she possesses the “innocence of
journalists”. Little does it occur to this media celeb that the
crimes alleged against her in Radiagate
are far more serious. The allegations of
“lobbying and brokering” in cabinet and govt formation are far more serious allegations
than the issue of blackmailing a company for advertisements in lieu of
suppression of news. She even rants that nobody is talking about it. I
wonder what stops NDTV from talking
about it? Even channels and newspapers avoided Radiagate till it was
inevitable. Worse, in her case (unlike the BEA in this case) the head of
Editors’ Guild, Rajdeep Sardesai, even defended her nonsense. It looks like she has also
forgotten her own tragic and disgusting program on NDTV when she tried to
defend herself. So Barkha would do well to hold her horses. That “Albatross”
around her neck is going to stay for a long time.

Barkha quotes The Hindu on the Zee News case. That brings us to another
question. Why are all major media outlets absolutely silent in the case of N. Ram of The Hindu and the land
related FIR against him? Reports
indicated he has even sought anticipatory bail. Would NDTV care to report? Oh
hang on, does NDTV have some business tie up with The Hindu? I haven’t seen any
tweets from Barkha on this. Never mind! We are selective in our outrage, you
see?

Now, the BEA needs to be commended to for action against Sudhir
Chaudhary. However, it would have been fair if they had “suspended” him instead of “expelling”
him. The final verdict on the tapes is still to be established by the police.
They could have waited a bit longer before expelling him. Not very important,
but the committee itself could have been differently constituted. It has at
least two members who are peers of Chaudhary, Dibang and Kanwal. Instead, they
could have chosen a committee of non-media members which would have made their
decision even more respectable. Still, considering how deep the media mafia
runs this response by the BEA is definitely a welcome change. Before cleaning
up corruption in politics and govt, it’s our news media that needs a large
broom.

24 comments
:

Absolutely agree on all points Ravinar. Rajdeep's favourite comment "is hamaam me sab nange hain" holds more true for media than for anyone else....and barkha's rant would be irrelevent as the media WILL go to town on this in next 10-15 days.

Barkha was also asking Abhinandan sekri why newslaundry is not reporting about it .She has a grudge against everybody .I have seen newslaundry interview of Barkha with Madhu Trehan where she was seen constantly fiddling with her cellphone and does not have manners how to behave giving an interview

Kyaa Sting kaa zamaana hai !!HT does a sting on Khurshid who threatens reverse sting,now this reporter is reverse stinged,everyone seems to be walking around with stingy material.In all this the core issue is lost,Didnt we hear sometime back a so called newschannel claiming that they were not newchannel but more of revenue generating advertisement channel?Where is BEA then?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9dKQ4IB2hY&feature=relatedBrokering News-IMDB What is being done about this too?

Media receiving the fruits of sting op. These sting ops investigation is becoming a nightmare for everyone. The early the media should learn this horror (sting op) as hazard and discard it, the better it would be for everyone. I am totally against of this sting drama. Well, at least a good step taken by BEA. BD....facepalm.

I would doubt honesty of Naveen. Is he not involved in Coalgate? He or his brother, whoever runs Vijayanagar Steel in Bellary-Hospet, has been charged with bribing Yeddi. Sudhir may be guilty, but Naveen will be guilty of much deeper and more serious corporate crimes. Let us wait for the trial and judgement. But, is the justice in India fair? I doubt. It is Jungle Raj, bigger and powerful animals will devour small and helpless. Judges are like jackals, sharing the leftovers. Whole India is Fu$$$d up. Let us enjoy the whoring on display, be a Sakhshi.

Barka Dutt is behaving as if she is a queen of innocence and ethics.Well she has to live with stigma of corruption and a power broker(Read Dalli).Radia Gate is much much bigger media scam than Zee-Jindal scam.NDTV should have kicked her out long before,just like BEA kicked Chaudhary.Barkha is a shameless woman.

I have a suggestion to make. If we can compile all the Media Corruption for each year & publish their Frauds on yearly basis or atleast discuss openly about who was the biggest scamster, it will be very interesting. A kind of similar to India's worst scamster journalists/Mediahouse poll would be a step in right direction.

Shameless Barkha Dutt and Sudhir Choudhry should be tried in a court of law for fraud and taking their audiences like us for a ride. Instead we see day in and day out these so called journalist thieves pontificating over the corruption of Indian Netas. Arnab Goswami of Times Now would go hammer and tongs against, Salman, Kalmadi and Gadkari but is silent on the fraud committed by his own fraternity. Such hypocrisy, my God!

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